


Sisters' day out

by wintersjackson



Series: Urban Magic RWBY [5]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, F/F, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-29
Updated: 2014-12-29
Packaged: 2018-03-04 04:01:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2908598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wintersjackson/pseuds/wintersjackson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A flame-born working every hour she can find and a Reaperkin alternating sleep and night classes don't exactly have many chances to spend some time as sisters. Yang's finally found the perfect opportunity, though she has a sinking feeling it's not going to last.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sisters' day out

Yang watched the waves crashing against the buttress quietly, wondering again just whether this had been worth it. They’d travelled halfway across the country, put every cent into the promises of a teenager on the internet and a club owner she’d never even met. She’d dragged her sister away from everything they’d ever known to start over in a place where they had nothing.

Her grip tightened on the handrail, pulse raising and the heat stirring drowsily within her at the memory. But Ruby had been unhappy. She’d been unhappy. Whatever they had owed Tai Yang, they had not owed him that.

“Hey Yang, if you’re done staring at the sea now can I have some money to buy an ice cream?”

Yang jumped, the anger disappearing as she twisted to grin at her sister a tad confusedly. Her sister was sitting halfway up some stone statue on the waterfront, legs dangling idly. Yang blinked as much at her antics at how she had managed to get up there when Yang had only turned her back for a second.

“Maybe once we’ve had that walk I promised,” Yang lied seamlessly, conscious of the very empty wallet buried deep in her pockets. Ruby hummed, placated, looking away as quickly as ever to look out over the sea again.

“What did you mean staring, Rubes?” Yang called up before her sister could completely forget the conversation.

“You were being all dark and broody!” Ruby chirped back. “I’ve been waiting around ten minutes waiting for you to finish!” Yang checked her beaten watch, just in case. They hadn’t even been at the waterfront for ten minutes yet.

It had been a difficult endeavour setting even this simple trip up, but Ruby had so much trouble with just leaving the house that Yang had been fully willing to beg her boss for the shift change she needed to pull it off. Grey clouds covered the sky from horizon to horizon and biting winds blew from every angle, conditions that Yang had been waiting for the better part of a month. Clouds meant not a single ray of sunlight to send Ruby back into her shell, and the winds that had the area deserted could do little but tickle the children of a Reaper and a Fire Elemental.

She had the whole day out with just her and her sister for the first time since they’d arrived in the city ten weeks ago, and there would be absolutely no interruptions-

“Hey, Ruby! Over here!”

Yang gnashed her teeth together, clamping a hand over the smoking spot on her arm even as she turned to glare at the new arrival. Ruby gave a delighted squeak, darting across the square and throwing herself into the arms of a gangly boy who spun her and who Yang felt a very intense urge to break.

“Fancy seeing you here, Jaune!”

“What are you talking about Ruby, you sent me a text saying ARGH yes, ow, no, I mean…what a coincidence?”

Yang slowed to a stop behind her sister about the same time a women even taller than her stepped around the corner behind the boy, nodding a greeting. Yang looked sternly at her little sister, who finally seemed to pick up on her mood and dropped from the boy’s arms, standing between the two.

“Um, Yang, this is Jaune. He’s my friend from school, he’s been helping me catch up on the course. Is…it okay that I invited him along…?”

Yang took a deep breath, fighting the temptation to say anything cruel, and glanced over her shoulder at him. Giving a light cough he stepped forward, offering a hand in greeting.

“Oh, you must be Yang. Ruby’s told me all about you. I, ah, I’m technically a PHD student, but in an evolving field like ours I attend the night courses as a way to stay current. Your sister is very…perceptive, miss Xiao Long.”

Yang half-heartedly kept up the glare for a few more seconds before taking the offered hand in the surprisingly firm handshake. She heard Ruby let out a sigh of relief even from behind her, and as soon as she let go of his hand Ruby had grabbed his other and was pulling him off towards the water.

“OkaythankyouYangwe’regonnaplayoverherenowthankscalluswhenyouneedusbye!”

Well, so much for a month of planning, Yang mused, but watching her sister excitedly zip around with the young man it was hard to be angry. Wait, scratch that, a man in his early twenties was supposedly the best friend of her sister who still had to have her dinner chopped into pieces for her sometimes, she could absolutely be furious-

“I imagine this isn’t quite what you had planned, right?” Came a gentle voice from the wall and Yang jumped, having completely forgotten the tall woman who had accompanied the boy. She was much younger than Yang had expected, at least looking so, but there was a glint of experience and strength in her soft smile that even Yang could identify. Yang coughed when she realised the woman was politely waiting for her, thrusting her hand in greeting and trying not to stare at the woman’s impressive figure or shining green eyes.

“…No, I guess not. Yang, I’m Ruby’s big sister. And guardian, legally, I guess. Are-Are you Jaune’s, like, keeper then? Or-or his…mother? I’m sorry, I kinda thought he was human.”

The woman’s laugh was like sunshine and honeysuckle. She took Yang’s hand in a steel grip, expression ever so slightly mischievous.

“His girlfriend, actually. Pyrrha, and it’s a pleasure, Yang.”

Yang coloured guiltily, taking back her hand and coughing into a fist. The woman laughed again, looking wistfully at where the two students were bickering happily on the quayside.

“Though at times I feel like your guess isn’t too far from the truth, I’ll admit. It’s a kind of holiday each night, letting him take me on dates or helping him with his thesis when I’ll be back to commanding a garrison of Valkyries and Einharjeren in the morning.

When it sank in Yang baulked for a moment, trying not to let it show too much on her face. She’d heard every rumour in the city working at Junior’s, and the one about the Valkyrie lieutenant with the human pet still made the rounds every week or so. With good reason, it seemed.

Ruby ran up, Jaune close behind, and Yang quickly smoothed her hair back down and tried to look reasonably composed again as her sister excitedly explained.

“Jaune says he hasn’t eaten yet and suggested ice cream but says it’s his treat so that’s alright, right, right?”

Yang blinked, turning to glance at Pyrrha, who gave the ever so slightest nod. Turning back, she nudged her sister gently towards the boy, giving a clearer nod of her own.

“Uh. Yeah, Ruby, just don’t eat it all at once, dear? You don’t want to be all full up before dinner tonight.”

The two dashed off again and Yang felt herself beginning to relax despite everything. Yang stepped up beside the other woman and the two watched and listened in companionable silence for a few minutes.

~

“So, uh, there aren’t any kind of creatures that steal time, are there?” Yang asked as the quiet began to become awkward. Pyrrha gave her an aside look and she tried to explain a little more.

“When we got here, I was watching the waves for a minute or so and Ruby said ten minutes had passed.”

The Valkyrie’s head tipped slightly in confusion as she glanced over. “Has Ruby’s teacher not explained what to look out for? It’s a rare skill, but they should have warned you it was a possibility.”

Yang frowned, feeling she’d missed something important from how matter-of-fact Pyrrha had said it.

“What, like, at the college? Ruby does night classes and I work at a club, I’ve never met her teachers.”

Pyrrha looked a little confused herself until she raised her eyebrows, glancing between the two sisters.

“Even with human blood, your sister is still a Reaper, Yang. Guides must be taught by other Guides, have you never had her taught the ways of her parent? Her talents could be most dangerous if she is not taught how to use them- this is most uncommon.”

Yang bit her tongue, fighting the stab of shame and anger the chiding tone stirred. Pyrrha had no right to do that to her. Yang had done her best with what she had.

“Look, I moved halfway across the country to work at a club,” she responded bitterly. “Ruby goes to night classes and has a phobia of daylight. Those classes aren’t cheap and I’m working night and day just keeping Ruby fed and in school, I’m trying my best but I can’t-“ She cut off as a sharp pang of worry for her sister spiked through her, before a firm hand was lain on her shoulder. Pyrrha squeezed gently, head bowed slightly in apology.

“I meant no offence. I had suspected, but I should have been clearer.” Leaning back on the bench they’d found she nodded at where Ruby shot around her friend, burning off the ice cream as fast as she could eat it. “That’s not speed that makes your sister move like that, rather, some reapers have the ability to slow down time. She may not even be fully aware that she does it, but she appears to be a natural. To give the soon-to-be-deceased some final moments of peace, I believe. Sooner or later, it will be her responsibility to use that talent. And, after, to take those she helped where they need to go.”

Yang nodded silently, dismayed but not surprised. Although only a year younger than her, Ruby’s development was…slow. These night courses, these Supernatural World studies, were the only thing on which she really seemed to be able to engage. Even as a low-demand course, they had not been cheap, and she’d been scraping out just enough to pay the tuition by taking every hour Junior had available. She believed Pyrrha, believed these lessons were important, but she didn’t see how she’d ever be able to afford them on top of everything else. Yang kneaded her forehead with a knuckle, tired of decision after decision just like this.

“I could do it, if you liked,” the Valkyrie popped up suddenly. Yang frowned, glanced at her, but Pyrrha’s face was polite and honest as ever. “I’ve spoken and worked with enough Guides to be able to walk her through it, and I already see her most nights when I collect Jaune. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind giving up a little time with me some evenings if it meant helping a friend.”

Yang knew she was staring and she didn’t care. Pyrrha held out her hand with that light, knowing chuckle and Yang just found herself hugging her, squeezing the other girl as tight and as long as she could.

A sound of distaste followed by a high chuckle roused her from her gratitude and she pulled back, seeing Ruby and Jaune standing close by. She shot a bright grin at her sister, missing the quickly fading blush her embrace had caused in the Valkyrie entirely.

“It’s good, Ruby,” Yang promised, broad grin refusing to be dampened. “It’s all going to be good.”


End file.
